Oneohtrix Point Never and James Ferraro

Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) and James Ferraro first appeared together on ambient supersession FRKWYS Vol. 7 with David Borden and Laurel Halo, and they make for an intriguing bill. Both producers are masters of conflating kitsch with sublimity. Ferraro’s a prolific, shape-shifting musician who's gone from the sculpted noise of Skaters and nightmare chillwave of Lamborghini Crystal to a solo career in which enigmatic transformations abound. He's ranged from Popol Vuh-like sacred-space musik to warped abstract surrealism to open-sky guitar-and-synth hypnagogia to ironic '80s TV-movie themes to, more recently, pallid, nocturnal R&B (NYC, Hell 3:00 AM) and disturbingly anodyne pop that doubles as meta-commentary on ephemeral internet culture and sound palettes (Far Side Virtual). On the new Skid Row, Ferraro’s still angling to subvert suave R&B loverman tropes; he sneaks pointed social commentary about racism and police brutality (broadcast news reportage and Rodney King figure prominently) into tracks meant to get listeners libidinous, and that’s radical. Oneohtrix Point Never has a new album, too: Garden of Delete. It’s his most varied, crazed, and accessible record to date—a chaotic pile-up of paradoxes and odd juxtapositions from one of electronic music’s most perverse, profound minds. DAVE SEGAL